Dr. Hude Quan, PhD'98

Before the term “data science” became common in Canada, Dr. Hude Quan, PhD'98, was already defining what it could mean for health care. An epidemiologist with a rare ability to connect technical precision with global vision, he has transformed how health data is collected, analyzed and applied. Over the course of his career, he has built the methodological foundations that allow researchers to turn complex health information into actionable insights. These tools are now used across Canada and around the world to improve patient care, guide policy and advance science itself.  

Quan’s influence has been so profound that it is difficult to imagine modern Canadian health research without the methods he helped create. 

In the 1980s, Quan was working as an epidemiologist in China when he ran up against a troubling truth: there was no reliable health-data system. The World Health Organization (WHO), frustrated by the information vacuum, simply stated, “We don’t know what’s happening in China.” At the time, collecting population health data often meant going door to door, asking whether anyone in the household had died, and relying on vague answers like, “They were old.” Diagnoses were rare. Records were unreliable. But, for Quan, even imperfect data told an important story, one no one else was capturing. 

That belief carried him to the University of Calgary in 1993 to begin a PhD in epidemiology. There, he encountered something entirely new: administrative health data; hospital records, billing codes and electronic medical files. Many researchers dismissed it as messy or unusable. Quan disagreed.  

“If you think this is garbage, you haven’t seen real garbage,” he told his colleagues. “Compared to what I was used to, this was gold.” 

Without direct access to the data and relying only on second-hand descriptions, Quan wrote his first grant proposal. Reviewers called it innovative, funding it immediately, and a pioneering career was born. 

Today, Quan is widely regarded as one of the world’s foremost experts in health-data science. He helped establish a research discipline before the term “data science” had even entered the mainstream. Through his postdoctoral fellowship in health services research at UCalgary, he began crafting the robust algorithms and analytic methods that would become standard in the field. One of his most cited contributions; a validated method for defining comorbidities in administrative data, has been referenced more than 10,000 times and remains a cornerstone for health services research internationally. 

“I’ve always believed the value of data lies in how you use it. If you use it poorly, it’s useless,” Quan says. “If research just sits in a drawer, I feel I’ve failed. But, when I see students applying it, or governments acting on it or clinicians using it to improve care — that motivates me.  

A professor in the Department of Community Health Sciences at the Cumming School of Medicine, Quan has spent more than two decades refining the way we use data to improve health systems. He has helped governments and health organizations around the world adopt better indicators for cardiovascular disease, patient safety and health equity. He has championed international efforts to validate and refine the WHO’s classification standards, including a leadership role in the development of ICD-11, a vital tool used by clinicians, hospitals and health researchers globally. 

“I had discovered that the WHO had a unit focused on International Classification of Diseases — ICD coding — and they were holding the annual meeting,” says Quan. “I wasn’t invited, but I booked my hotel and went anyway and they allowed me to come as an observer, not to speak, but that didn’t matter to me. I was just thrilled to be in the room.” 

Over time, Quan became the founding director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Classification, Measurement and Standardization at UCalgary, one of only a handful of centres in the world focused on data science.  

“We help WHO improve global population health using data that already exists,” he explains. “That’s powerful because collecting new data in every country is expensive. But, if we can make better use of what we already have, we can make change happen faster.” 

As director of Alberta’s Strategies for Patient Oriented Research (SPOR) Data and Research Services team, Quan has transformed the way researchers in Alberta access health data. What once took more than two years now takes less than a month, a shift that has enabled more than 60 new research projects annually.  

Quan’s impact, however, extends far beyond his research. It lives in his students with more than 35 master’s, PhD and postdoctoral trainees from around the world, and in the culture of mentorship he’s built. 

“One of the most fulfilling parts of my career has been training students, I wasn’t required to teach when I first got my faculty position,” he recalls. “But I said, ‘I must teach. That’s what a professor does.’” 

Quan created a graduate-level course in administrative data analysis that requires students to conduct a full research study — from question to publication. The results have been extraordinary: more than 60 peer-reviewed papers published by students directly from course projects. He also established international training and exchange programs that have brought students from China, France, Spain, Korea and other countries to Calgary, and sent local students to intern at WHO headquarters in Geneva. 

“It feels like a tree: growing, branching out and bearing fruit,” Quan says. “That’s the greatest reward.” 

His forward-looking spirit continues to shape the future of the field. As founding director of the Centre for Health Informatics at UCalgary, he helped launch a new diploma and master’s program in data science and analytics. Student enrolment quickly exceeded expectations — proof that the next generation is hungry to carry the torch. 

Remarkably, much of this work has continued even as Quan himself faced a life-threatening illness.  

“A few years ago, I was diagnosed with a serious cancer, the kind people usually don’t survive more than one year,” says Quan. “But I’m still here. I teach, I do research, I supervise students. I pray a lot to Jesus and that gives me strength.” 

That openness, and the support it has brought him, speaks to the relationships he’s built throughout his career with students, colleagues and collaborators around the globe. It also speaks to his clarity of purpose. 

“After the diagnosis, a student approached me and asked if I would supervise his PhD,” says Quan. “I told him the truth about my health and expectations, and he said, ‘I still want you to be my supervisor.’ That meant everything.”  

Receiving the University of Calgary Distinguished Alumni Award for Lifetime Achievement feels personal.  

“This is home,” Quan says. “I studied here. I work here. My family is here. It’s not about prestige — it’s about recognition from the people who’ve seen your journey. It touches my heart.”